TWA 800

by Jack Cashill

  1.E-mail to author, circa June 20, 2001.

  2.Al Kamen, “Bombshell from Lawrence Livermore,” Washington Post, March 28, 1994, http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/archive/politics/1994/03/28/bombshell-from-lawrence-livermore/bbec0be8-84a0-47b8-a725-e6013e1c4024/?resType=accessibility.

  3.Lawrie Mifflin, “Media Talk; ABC News at Odds With Parent Network,” New York Times, October 26, 1998, http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/26/business/media-talk-abc-news-at-odds-with-parent-network.html.

  4.Kristina Borjesson, Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press (New York: Prometheus Books, 2004), 323.

  5.E-mail to the author, November 9, 2015.

  6.Borjesson, Into the Buzzsaw, 325.

  7.Transcript, CNN The Point with Greta Van Susteren, July 17, 2001, http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0107/17/tpt.00.html.

  8.Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, “Advice to CNN, Part II,” Accuracy in Media, August 17, 2001, http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/advice-to-cnn-part-ii/.

  9.Reed Irvine, “CNN Has Two Black Eyes,” Accuracy in Media, August 3, 2001, http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2001/08/03.html.

  NINE: SEPTEMBER 11

  1.For more detail, see Jack Cashill, “What Does Leon Panetta Know About TWA 800,” January 8, 2009, WND.com, http://www.cashill.com/twa800/what_does_leon_panetta.htm.

  2.Phone interview with Thomas Young, November 11, 2015.

  3.Reed Irvine, “The ‘Bombing’ of TWA 800,” Accuracy in Media, September 19, 2001, http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-bombing-of-twa-800/.

  4.Transcript, CBS News Special Report, September 11, 2001, cached at http://pastebin.ca/raw/1965515.

  5.Transcript, “Larry King Live,” September 11, 2001, cached at Associated Retired Aviation Professionals: The Flight 800 Investigation, http://twa800.com/news/kerry-9-11-01.htm.

  6.CNBC News Transcripts, Hardball with Chris Matthews, September 24, 2001, cached at Associated Retired Aviation Professionals: The Flight 800 Investigation, http://twa800.com/news/kerry-transcript-9-24-01.htm.

  7.Walter Robinson and Glen Johnson, “Airlines Fought Security Changes,” Boston Globe, September 20, 2001, cached at http://www.webguild.com/sentinel/airlines_fought.htm.

  8.Letter cached at Associated Retired Aviation Professionals: The Flight 800 Investigation, http://twa800.com/news/mundo-9-25-01.htm.

  9.Phone interview with Thomas Young, November 11, 2015.

  10.Nelson DeMille, Night Fall (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2004). The incidents that DeMille relates are condensed from the book’s foreword.

  TEN: FIT TO PRINT

  1.N. R. Kleinfield, “The Crash of Flight 800,” New York Times, July 18, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/18/nyregion/crash-flight-800-overview-twa-jetliner-leaving-new-york-for-paris-crashes.html.

  2.“Explosion Aboard T.W.A. Flight 800,” New York Times, July 19, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/19/nyregion/explosion-aboard-twa-flight-800-remarks-by-clinton-about-the-crash-of-flight-800.html.

  3.President Bill Clinton, January 26, 1998, video cached at Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=i+did+not+have+sexual+relations+with+that+woman%2c+miss+lewinsky.+%E2%80%9D&view=detail&mid=146486F89583EEE7CD33146486F89583EEE7CD33&FORM=VIRE7.

  4.David Johnston, “Explosion Aboard T.W.A. Flight 800: The Theories,” New York Times, July 19, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/19/nyregion/explosion-aboard-twa-flight-800-theories-multitude-ideas-but-little-evidence.html.

  5.Matthew Purdy, “Investigators Suspect Explosive Device as Likeliest Cause for Crash of Flight 800,” New York Times, July 19, 1996, http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/960719explosion-aboard-t.html.

  6.CIA documents cached at TWA Flight 800: The Impossible Zoom Climb, raylahr.entryhost.com, “CIA records released to Tom Stalcup,” records 26–50.

  7.David Johnston, “The Crash of Flight 800: The Possibilities,” New York Times, July 21, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/21/nyregion/crash-flight-800-possibilities-tips-leads-theories-are-flooding.html.

  8.CIA documents cached at TWA Flight 800: The Impossible Zoom Climb, raylahr.entryhost.com, “CIA records released to Tom Stalcup,” records 26–50.

  9.Matthew Purdy, “No Evidence of Explosive So Far in Crash Inquiry,” New York Times, July 24, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/24/nyregion/no-evidence-of-explosive-so-far-in-crash-inquiry.html.

  10.“The Fate of Flight 800; The President’s Remarks at Kennedy to the Families of the Crash Victims,” New York Times, July 26, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/26/nyregion/fate-flight-800-president-s-remarks-kennedy-families-crash-victims.html.

  11.Matthew Wald, “The Fate of Flight 800: The Data,” New York Times, July 26, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/26/nyregion/fate-flight-800-data-record-quick-destruction-briefest-sound-then-silence.html.

  12.Matthew Purdy, “The Fate of Flight 800: The Flight Data,” New York Times, July 27, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/27/nyregion/fate-flight-800-flight-data-backing-bomb-theory-devices-stopped-unison.html.

  13.“Mr. Clinton Moves on Air Security,” New York Times, July 26, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/26/opinion/mr-clinton-moves-on-air-security.html.

  14.Joe Sexton, “The Fate of Flight 800: The Investigation,” New York Times, July 28, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/28/nyregion/fate-flight-800-investigation-while-cause-crash-sought-parallel-criminal-inquiry.html.

  15.CIA documents cached at TWA Flight 800: The Impossible Zoom Climb, raylahr.entryhost.com, “CIA records released to Tom Stalcup,” records 26–50.

  16.Taylor Branch, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History in the White House (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 371.

  17.Ibid., 372.

  18.Ibid.

  19.Byron York, “The Facts About Clinton and Terrorism,” National Review, September 11, 2006, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/218683/facts-about-clinton-and-terrorism-byron-york.

  20.Kevin Ready and Cap Parlier, TWA 800: Accident or Incident (Prescott, AZ: Saint Gaudens Press, 1998).

  21.Transcript, “TWA Flight 800: No Survivors,” CNN.com, June 31, 2013, http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1306/21/acd.02.html.

  22.Branch, The Clinton Tapes, 371.

  23.David Johnston and Tim Weiner, “Seizing the Crime Issue, Clinton Blurs Party Lines,” New York Times, August 1, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/01/us/seizing-the-crime-issue-clinton-blurs-party-lines.html.

  24.Don Van Natta, “Fuel Tank’s Condition Makes Malfunction Seem Less Likely,” New York Times, August 14, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/14/nyregion/fuel-tank-s-condition-makes-malfunction-seem-less-likely.html.

  25.TWA Flight 800, NTSB docket materials, DCA-96-MA070, August 2000, Exhibit 4A, appendix C.

  26.Dan Barry, “F.B.I. Says 2 Labs Found Traces Of Explosive on T.W.A. Jetliner,” New York Times, August 24, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/24/nyregion/fbi-says-2-labs-found-traces-of-explosive-on-twa-jetliner.html.

  27.Don Van Natta, “Prime Evidence Found That Device Exploded in Cabin of TWA 800,” New York Times, August 23, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/23/nyregion/prime-evidence-found-that-device-exploded-in-cabin-of-flight-800.html.

  28.Jocelyn Noveck, “Pierre Salinger Claims Navy Missile Shot Down TWA Flight 800,” Associated Press, November 8, 1996, cached at http://www.welfarestate.com/twa800/pierre.htm.

  29.Patricia Milton, In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800 (New York: Random House, 1999), 227.

  30.Don Van Natta, “Small Pieces of T.W.A. Jet’s Wreckage Intrigue Investigators,” New York Times, August 9, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/09/nyregion/small-pieces-of-twa-jet-s-wreckage-intrigue-investigators.html.

  31.Barry, “F.B.I. Says 2 Labs Found Traces Of Explosive on T.W.A. Jetliner.”

  32.Harold Trimm, Forensics the Easy Way (Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, 2005), 151.

  33.Tom Stalcup and Kristina Borjesson, TWA Flight 800 (TWA
800 Project, LLC, 2013).

  34.David Johnston, “At F.B.I. Lab, A Scientific Mission and a Challenge of Its Methods, New York Times, August 3, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/03/nyregion/at-fbi-lab-a-scientific-mission-and-a-challenge-of-its-methods.html.

  35.Dick Morris, Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presidency in the Nineties (New York: Random House, 1997), 33.

  36.Francis X. Clines, “Clinton Signs Bill Cutting Welfare; States in New Role,” New York Times, August 23, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/23/us/clinton-signs-bill-cutting-welfare-states-in-new-role.html.

  37.Barry, “F.B.I. Says 2 Labs Found Traces Of Explosive on T.W.A. Jetliner.”

  38.Christine Negroni, Deadly Departure: Why the Experts Failed to Prevent the TWA Flight 800 Disaster and How It Could Happen Again (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 185.

  39.Ibid.

  ELEVEN: BLACK HOLE

  1.Bill Clinton, My Life (New York: Random House, 2004), 334.

  2.Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 123–24.

  3.Hillary Clinton, Living History (New York: Scribner, 2003), 363.

  4.Louis Freeh, My FBI: Bringing Down The Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 291.

  5.Dick Morris, Off with Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks, and Obstructionists in American Politics, Media, and Business (New York: Harper Collins, 2003), 106.

  6.Good Morning America, June 19, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wPZGZXmIEk.

  7.Transcript, “TWA Flight 800: No Survivors,” CNN.com, June 31, 2013, http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1306/21/acd.02.html.

  8.Special Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate, January 4, 1995 to October 3, 1996, published January 22, 1997, http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/publications/committee-activities-special-report-select-committee-intelligence-january-4-1995.

  9.CIA documents cached at TWA Flight 800: The Impossible Zoom Climb, raylahr.entryhost.com, “CIA records released to Tom Stalcup,” records 51–75.

  10.CIA documents cached at TWA Flight 800: The Impossible Zoom Climb, raylahr.entryhost.com, “CIA records released to Tom Stalcup,” records 1–10.

  11.Clarke, Against All Enemies, 121.

  12.Ibid., 122.

  13.CIA documents cached at TWA Flight 800: The Impossible Zoom Climb, raylahr.entryhost.com, “CIA records released to Tom Stalcup,” records 26–50.

  14.Clarke, Against All Enemies, 122.

  15.Ibid., 124.

  16.Ibid., 125.

  17.Patricia Milton, In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800 (New York: Random House, 1999), 282.

  18.Clarke, Against All Enemies, 126.

  19.Ibid.

  20.“Clarke’s Take on Terror,” 60 Minutes, CBS, March 19, 2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/clarkes-take-on-terror/.

  TWELVE: DOG DAYS

  1.Don Van Natta, “More Traces of Explosive in Flight 800,” New York Times, August 31, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/31/nyregion/more-traces-of-explosive-in-flight-800.html.

  2.“TWA Flight 800 Crash Investigation,” C-SPAN, May 10, 1999, http://www.c-span.org/video/?123165-1/twa-flight-800-crash-investigation.

  3.Patricia Milton, In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800 (New York: Random House, 1999), 262.

  4.As interviewed for Silenced.

  5.Tom Stalcup and Kristina Borjesson, TWA Flight 800 (TWA 800 Project, LLC, 2013).

  6.“TWA Flight 800 Crash Investigation,” C-SPAN, May 10, 1999.

  7.Stalcup and Borjesson, TWA Flight 800.

  8.As interviewed for Silenced.

  9.Ibid.

  10.Phone interview with Gene York, June 8, 2015.

  11.Matthew Wald, “New Focus on Malfunctions In Inquiry on T.W.A. Crash,” New York Times, September 19, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/19/nyregion/new-focus-on-malfunctions-in-inquiry-on-twa-crash.html.

  12.Milton, In the Blink of an Eye, 229.

  13.Matthew Purdy, “Bomb Security Test On Jet May Explain Trace of Explosives,” New York Times, September 21, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/21/nyregion/bomb-security-test-on-jet-may-explain-trace-of-explosives.html.

  14.Ibid.

  15.Don Van Natta, “Setback in T.W.A. Crash Inquiry Adds Urgency to the Search for Evidence of a Bomb,” New York Times, September 22, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/22/nyregion/setback-in-twa-crash-inquiry-addsurgency-to-the-search-for-evidence-of-a-bomb.html?pagewanted=all.

  16.Ibid.

  17.Milton, In the Blink of an Eye, 231.

  18.Letter to Rep. James Traficant from Jim Kallstrom in response to Traficant’s questions, September 5, 1997, http://www.apfn.org/thewinds/flight800.pdf.

  19.The gate assignment from June 10, 1996 is listed as Appendix VII in Peter Lance: Triple Cross: How bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI—and Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed to Stop Him (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), 567.

  20.This was reported by Dave Hendrix of the Riverside Press-Enterprise and published as a chapter, “St. Louis Canine Scheme,” in James Sanders’ book, Altered Evidence (Philadelphia, PA: Offset Paperbacks, 1999). Tom Shoemaker and Kay Pennington also did original research on the story as reported in the December 1988 and January 1999 TWA Case Files Newsletter.

  21.Ibid.

  22.Transcript, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Aviation, July 10, 1997, http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/Trans/hpw105-33.000/hpw105-33_0f.htm.

  23.Christine Negroni, Deadly Departure: Why the Experts Failed to Prevent the TWA Flight 800 Disaster and How It Could Happen Again (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 185.

  24.Ibid., 186.

  25.Transcript, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Aviation.

  26.Milton, In the Blink of an Eye, 231–32.

  27.Phone interview with Herman Burnett, August 2001.

  28.Todd Purdum, “Clinton Signs a Wide-Ranging Measure on Airport Security,” New York Times, October 10, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/10/us/clinton-signs-a-wide-ranging-measure-on-airport-security.html.

  THIRTEEN: LOST AT SEA

  1.CIA documents cached at TWA Flight 800: The Impossible Zoom Climb, raylahr.entryhost.com, “CIA records released to Tom Stalcup,” records 26–50.

  2.Robert Patterson, Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2003), 139.

  3.FBI NO/FORN memo 1995, Appendix XI, in Peter Lance: Triple Cross: How bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI—and Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed to Stop Him (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), 576.

  4.Ibid.

  5.Patricia Milton, In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800 (New York: Random House, 1999), 6.

  6.John Barry and Roger Charles, “Sea of Lies,” Newsweek, July 12, 1992, http://www.newsweek.com/sea-lies-200118.

  7.Michael Gordon, “Cover-Up Denied in Downing Of Iranian Passenger Jet in ’88,” New York Times, July 22, 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/22/world/cover-up-denied-in-downing-of-iranian-passenger-jet-in-88.html.

  8.David Evans, “Crowe Endorsement Of Clinton Raises More Than Eyebrows,” Chicago Tribune, September 25, 1992, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-09-25/news/9203270346_1_crowe-iranianterritorial-waters-clinton-campaign.

  9.William Crowe, “Clinton’s Vietnam Era Compatriots at Oxford; Divisive and Peripheral,” New York Times, October 13, 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/13/opinion/l-clinton-s-vietnam-era-compatriots-at-oxford-divisive-and-peripheral-350092.html.

  10.Andrew Revkin, “Conspiracy Theories Rife On Demise of Flight 800,” New York Times, September 17, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/17/nyregion/conspiracy-theories-rife-on-demise-of-flight-800.html.

  11.Jocelyn Noveck, “Pierre Salinger’s TWA Flight 800 Missile News Conference,” Associated Press, November 8, 1996, http://www.welfarestate.com/twa
800/pierre.htm.

  12.Milton, In the Blink of an Eye, 89.

  13.Ibid., 91.

  14.TWA Flight 800, NTSB docket materials, DCA-96-MA070, August 2000, Exhibit 4A, appendix M.

  15.Milton, In the Blink of an Eye, 153.

  16.Matthew Purdy, “Despite Many Denials, T.W.A. Missile Rumor Is Back,” New York Times, November 9, 1996, http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/09/nyregion/despite-many-denials-twa-missile-rumor-is-back.html.

  17.NTSB docket materials, Exhibit 4A, appendix M.

  18.Kristina Borjesson, Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press (New York: Prometheus Books, 2004), 291.

  19.E-mail exchange and follow-up interview, November 15, 2010.

  20.Noveck, “Pierre Salinger’s TWA Flight 800 Missile News Conference.”

  21.Milton, In the Blink of an Eye, 150–52.

  22.Purdy, “Despite Many Denials, T.W.A. Missile Rumor Is Back.”

  23.Letter from Alice Rowe and Lisa Perry to Cmdr. Donaldson, October 17, 1998, http://twa800.com/pages/perry.htm.

  24.FBI New York Office Press Release, “FBI: No criminal evidence behind TWA 800 crash,” November 18, 1997, http://www.cnn.com/US/9711/18/twa.fbi.presser/.

  25.E-mail communications with Allen Strasser, August 2008, for more detail see Jack Cashill, “Pilot Sheds New Light on TWA 800 Scandal,” August 7, 2008, WND.com, http://www.cashill.com/twa800/pilot_sheds.htm.

  26.Milton, In the Blink of an Eye, 186.

  27.E-mail communications, June 2013, for more detail see Jack Cashill, “Did Navy Sub Missile Hit TWA 800?” WND.com, June 21, 2013, http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/did-navy-sub-missile-hit-twa-800/.

  28.NTSB Aircraft Accident Report, In-flight breakup over the Atlantic Ocean, Trans World Airlines Flight 800 Boeing 747-131, N93119, near East Moriches, New York, July 17, 1996 (Washington, DC: Diane Publishing, 2000), 88–89, http://bit.ly/1LqLGsX.

  29.Reed Irvine, “Navy Vessels on Classified Maneuvers,” AIM Report, September 1999, http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1999/09a.htm.

  30.Letter from Lewis Schiliro to Rep. James Traficant, July 27, 1997, http://twa800.com/letters/fbi.htm.

  31.“Erroneous Airspeed Indications Cited in Boeing 757 Control Loss,” Accident Prevention, October 1999, http://flightsafety.org/ap/ap_oct99.pdf.